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@NeilFairbrother
As well as fixed wheel bikes (and geared bikes) I love motorbikes and have been lucky enough in the past to have acquired a couple, a Honda VFR800 and a Harley Dyna Wide Glide. The Harley is belt drive and the belt has never caused a problem and as far as I am aware it has never needed tensioning. I'd suggest that this empirical evidence would mean that belt drive would be sufficiently strong on a bicycle.
On the other hand the chain on the Honda is included in every pre-ride check and often needs tweaking, a simple enough operation with an elliptical tensioning system but all the same...
Should a belt drive on a bike need tensioning, then elliptical bottom brackets as used in tandems could be one solution.
I think the market is pretty huge - single speed and hub geared which mostly is commuter/general purpose where dirty chains are not appealing.
I skimmed through the thread but didn't spot how gear ratios would be calculated in these systems, sorry if it was there, does any one know?